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“Open the fuckin’ door, Peyton! I know you’re in there.”
My stomach bottomed out, my shaking hands barely holding on to Kian as I crawled us over to the corner of his room underneath his window that looked out onto the backyard, but was also closest to the stairs. One wrong move and he’d see us.
“Open up!” he roared, the door shaking as he crashed into it, with either his body or his fist, neither would have surprised me.
I stroked Kian’s hair, trying to keep him and myself as calm as possible, but that didn’t stop his little sobs, his terror physically manifesting as he let it all out. We’d been safe for too long. I’d gotten complacent when I shouldn’t have. The grocery store should have been my warning that I listened to, but instead I’d stayed, feeling like I was creating a new life for us that included friends.
But I’d put us all at risk. I’d once again let my sons down.
“Can I help you?” I heard another voice ask, and this time my stomach rolled for an entirely new reason.
“Mind your business,” Travis snapped at Raf, and I could just imagine the way Raf would frown at him, analyzing him the way he did with everyone else.
“Peyton! Open this damn door.” I jumped at the sound of his voice again, but this time some of the fright that had taken hold of me started to simmer away. Rafael was out there and there was no way he would let any of us get hurt. I knew that without a doubt.
“She’s not in,” a new voice said. Bailey. Fuck, what was she doing out there?
“She is in,” Travis growled at her. “I’m tracking her.”
Tracking me?
How the hell was he tracking me? There was no way he could be. That…that didn’t make any sense.
“She had to rush to the store to get diapers,” Bailey said, so convincingly that even I believed her for a second. “See? Her car isn’t here.” My shoulders drooped as I remembered Romeo getting me new tires. It was the perfect time, but that also meant that he wasn’t tracking me through my car.
Seconds ticked by, which turned to minutes, and I couldn’t hear a single thing out there. I was starting to relax when his gruff voice said, “Tell her I’ll be back. I’m not letting this go—I’m not lettinghergo.”
I blinked, staring at a spot on Kian’s wall where either he or Reed had drawn in wax crayon, focusing on it so intently as his words repeated over and over again in my mind.
I’m not letting her go. I’m not letting her go.
I wasn’t free…I wouldn’t ever be free.
And now Travis knew I had friends. He knew I had people looking out for me, because not just anyone would do what Raf and Bailey had.
I heard Travis’s engine roaring away, and I wasn’t sure what got into me—maybe the adrenaline and terror that had been thrashing through my body—but I made sure Kian was okay, told him to stay where he was, then practically ran downstairs and flung my front door open.
They were both standing on my driveway, staring down the street, but he was gone now. Gone but not forgotten. He’d be back; it was only a matter of time.
“What a dick,” Raf murmured, then turned to Bailey. “Romeo is gonna lose his shit when—”
“Really?” I snapped, placing my hands on my hips. “Did you really need to do that, Rafael?”
He raised one brow, a ghost of a smirk shadowing his lips. “Do what, mama?”
My cheeks heated at his words, memories of last night flashing through my mind like a highlight reel. I was angry at him, but…I shouldn’t have been. I just…I didn’t know how to react, how to sort through all of my emotions, so I told him, “Go all”—I waved my arm around in the air—“Mafia man.”
He ambled one slow step toward me, his head tilted to the side. “You saying you don’t like it when I get like that?” I blinked, caught in his trap, hating that he’d hypnotized me. “’Cause, I’m gonna say you do like it.” He paused, waiting. “You like it a lot.”
My heart beat rapidly in my chest, not just from the fact that Travis had been here, standing in the very spot that Raf was now in, but because of how close Raf was. His scent wrapped around me, evoking memories of the night before and—
Dammit. He’d distracted me.
By him being there, he’d let Travis know that I wasn’t out here alone. I had people looking out for me and…shit.
“Fuck you, Rafael. You have no idea who that was and what he wanted.” My voice cracked, tears threatening to spring to life. “Just…just leave me the hell alone.” I slammed the door closed, my breath caught in my throat as I pressed against it, knowing that I was pushing him away. He was the one person that I wanted close by right now, but I wouldn’t put him at risk too. I had to protect him, just like I had to my boys. And the only way to do that was to push him away.
“Peyton?” Bailey called, her voice sounding closer. “Peyton, are you okay?”
